child's game
by silent unknown walker
Summary: An unfortunate little girl discovers the horrors of humanity through the purple guy. first story, long one-shot, rated M for some violent content
1. into the dark alley

Child's game

Child's game

chapter one: into the dark alley

This just wasn't right, something was wrong

Or at least that was what Rebeca, a 9 year old girl, was thinking.

It was a rainy day in the streets of gotham city. That wasn't strange, it always rained in the tremendous metropolis, and Rebeca was used to that. For that reason she always carried an umbrella in her bag when goind to school, which was only a few blocks away from her house, so she walked instead of teking the bus or in a bicycle.

But the neighborhood wasn't the best one, on the contrary, it was very common to see robbers or thugs rambling the streets, but she knew which streets to avoid, so it was very uncommon for her to find trouble in her way home. Of course this at first caused a lot of strees in her mother, but after a while she decided that she could trust in the sense of security of her smart daughter.

Her father had died a month after she was born, so she didn't really cared about him. But it wasn't the case of her mother, who still, after 9 years, seemed to be mourning his dead.

But of course, none of this mattered to Rebeca during a Tuesday evening, on a rainy day, on her way home, coming from the recently finished scool time, and from saying goodbye to Miley, a girl from her class and her very best friend.

After leaving her school, she headed immediatly towards her house, taking the usual route, and puttng the umbrella over her head to avoid the very strong rain that was falling at the moment. But as she walked the long street that separated her from home, she realized that the street, usually full of people, even on rainy days, was completly empty, not even Harry, a hot-dog street seller and a friend oh her's, was there, and that was really weird.

It made her feel uncomfortable, she was used to the noise, to step into people while they hurriedly walked towards their own respective houses. But it wasn't happening today, today it was all silence, it was all strange.

Suddenly, as she passed in front of a dark alley, she heard something, it seemed like a very loud and humorless laugh. Curious, she stepped into the alley, trying to see were the strange laugh came from. As she stepped into the dark and narrow path, the more she felt uncomfortable, she looked up and stopped, there were people, all of them wattching towards the end of the alley from the windows of their houses. They were so focused on what they were seeing, that none of them noticed the little girl passing below them.

As she went ahead into the narrow, she noticed that straight ahead there seemed to be a group of people, with their backs towards her, and forming a circle around something. That was from where the strange laugh was coming from. Putting down the umbrella, she headed towards the circle.

They were like 40 people gathered there, all of them adults, looking strait towards the center of the circle, from were she now heard strange noises, like punches or squirms of pain. Knoew she was scared, but more curious than scared, so she kept walking, and she was now standing right outside the circle of men, behind a very tall man. She began to walk orund the people, but all she could see was that someone was at the midle, laughing like a maniac. She was only able to see his silouete, but she could tell he was a man by the spund of his voice, which had stopped laughing, and he was know talking, in a very weird way. The way that clowns spoked to tell jokes to children. She didn't like clowns, she found them scary.

"Well, well, well Harry" said the voice from inside the circle "what can i say to you? You failed me, and you know what happens to people that fail me" he laughed again, it made a chill run down through her spine. "but you know, you don't have to worry, because when the angels come to pick you up, or the little devils if you preffer, you'll be able to see your once beautiful daughter, and your never beautiful, but fat, wife" he said all of this in such careless way, that Rebeca saw the pocibility that the men reunited there could be atreet actors or something like that, but then she heard a very familiar voice.

"P..ple..p..please mister jocker, d..do..do... don't hurt me, i beg you" it was Harry, the hot-dog seller that she knew. She froze in her spot, what was going on? Were they hurting Harry?

"hmmmm" said out loud the clowny voice "let me think about it" she heard footsteps inside of the circle, "what do you think Mike?" he said suddenly, probably to one person she couldn't see "Should i hurt or not hurt little Harry here?" there was no answer, and she couldn't tell what they were doing inside of the group "and you Freddy? What do you think?" he asked to another person. This time there was an answer:

"I think you should let him go, you know?" said a man she couldn't see "Harry is a very nice fella, and knows when to keep his mouth shut"

"Hmmm, is that so?" it was the clown man now "hmmm, i still have my doubts about this subject, maybe we should take a more... exterior opinion about this matter. So guys please open up so we can pick our first participant" and with that, suddenly, right in front of Rebeca, the circle of men opened, reveling an horrible sight that made her frooze: there was Harry, drooped on the floor, blood running through his face and cloths. She noticed he was holding his right arm, but when she looked more carefully, she realized that there it was no arm, and it was a few meters away from were it was sopposed to be. Near him there were 2 women dropped on the floor, she recognized them immediatly, one was the 15 year old daughter of harry, she didn't moved, and when Rebeca saw more carefully her face, she realized that a scar was on it, as if it had been cutted with a butcher knife, but had been left at middle of the job. The other one was a fat woman, in her mid therties, she was Harry's wife, but she could only tell that because of the way the body was, because she could see that the woman had been decapitated. In the middle of all this, was a man.

This man was looking straight towards her, an smirk plastered on his face, which had been painted with white, and the eyes were surrounded by black makeup, which, beacause of the rain, had been moved, and now it was an strange mixture of black, white, and some red painting from the man's mouth. His hair was very long an messy, with a little bit of green on it, and because of the rain, it had taken a color of greenish brown. He was al dressed-up in purple and was holding a knife in one of his gloved hands.

She freezed in the spot, not knowing what to do, not thinking, and shaking in fear, looking at the dead bodies all wet and rotting, right in front of her, totally absort to anything that was happening around her. Not noticing thet the man in the middle of the circle was looking at her, smirking like a mad man.

"And what do we have here?" he said looking at the frightened girl, who didn't showed any sign of have listened to him. He began to walk towards her, laughing lowly "I believe you are not supoused to be here little lady" he kneeled in front oh her, but she didn't react, she was still in shock "hmm? What's the matter lady, why so serious?" he laughed again, enjoying enormously the frightened look on the girl's ayes, he then turned towards his men "gentlemen, i think we have our participant" grabbing the girl's hand, he dragged her towards the center of the circle, which closed after they entered it. She didn't react, she just let the man drag her around, shaking madly.

He located her right in front of Harry, who was surprised when he saw the little girl.

"Rebeca?" he said while fighting the horrible pai that the wound caused him "what are you doing here?" the man in purple noticed this.

"Oh!" he exclaimed smirking "so you know each other?" the situation was clearly very enjoyable to him "but the girl didn't showed any expression, this annoyed him. He waved his hand in front of Rebeca's face, but there was no change, he frowned "hmmm gues we'll have to take drastic action with this one" and once said that, he punched strongly on the face. She fell backwards, suddenly coming to her senses. Feeling the new pain on her check, and the hrrible situation she was in, she began to cry, she was scared, it was all like a very bad dream, almost like an illution, she just didn´t know what to do. She hugged her knees, preesing them against her chest, and hiding her face between them.

The man of the painted face, smirked at the sight of the terrified girl "aw come on! don't be scared little lady, we are just playing some games with our friend harry here, who seems to be your friend to, am i wrong?" but she just stayed the way she was, not moving, with her eyes closed desperately. The man sighed, clearly bored by the situation, he satnded up, thinking what to do, he looked at his men, asking them what to do, but they just shrugged, neither they knew what to do. Suddenly his face hilluminated, he kneeled beside her, and whispered to her ear"if you help us in this one, and play the way we want, you can just leave, and go back to your home" the little girl looked up, she was terified by the face of the man, but she had heared him.

"Y.. yo...y...you promise" she sai lowly, not daring to speak out loud. The man smirked madly, clearly complased by the answer of the little girl.

"Little lady" he said, standing up, and bowing in a very old fashion "i promise"

...

well that's the firs chapter, leave a review if you like,(idon't spect any), but at least read the story, because the first story is always very personal. Oh! and sorry by the bad way of writing, i'm a chilean you know, and it's very difficult for me to write in english. it's just that there aren't manystories of the dark knight in spanish, so i guess more people might read this story if y make it in english

if you have, (bow in an old fashion) thank you for reading.


	2. back home

Child's game

Chapter 2: back home

Rebeca slowly standed up, always looking down at her feet. The man was clapping his hands entusiatically, which terrified the girl much more: how could he be laughing and clapping when two people laid on the floor, mutilated, and a man with a missing arm right in front of him?

"All right!" said the man, who had stopped the clapping and was standing right in front of Harry, who was painting harder now, the blood was leaking through the fingers of his hand, and he seemed to be very tired, almost sleepy "my dear Harry, it seems you may have a way of getting out of this one. Of course, only if our friend here is able to play our little game by the rules. What do you say about it?" the poor seller looked at the girl, who kept looking at her feet, not daring to look up, slowly realizing how stupid she had been for entering that alley.

"Please Mr. Joker" said Harry, clearly refering to the man in front of him, "let the child go, she is just a little kid, she won't tell anybody" the joker stayed silent for a while, Rebeca couldn't see him, so she didn't know what he was doing. Suddenly Harry screamed, making her lift up her head and look at him. In horror, she watched the man in purple kicking the place were the right arm of Harry used to be. He screamed in pain, and she just stayed there, watching the horrendous spectacle, while the joker laughed like a maniac at the demonstrations of pain coming from the hot-dog seller.

"I asked you if it was fine with you, not your stupid and totally unnecesary opinion about this little dwarf" said between kick and kick, he suddenly stopped, pulled his hair off his eyes, and turned to the girl, smiling and panting from the beating he had just given to the poor man "no offense my dear, it's just that we need the coopertaion of Harry here, and he doesn't seem very cooperative, don´t you think?" Rebeca just stood there, feeling sick for the enormous amount of blood she had just seen. But the words coming from the joker made her believe that maybe he wasn't so bad. Maybe he could let her go.

"M...Mist... Mr. Joker?" she asked very slowly, catching the atention of the man. He looked down at her, his deformed face smiling at girl. The rain hadn´t stopped, so she was know trembling not only because of the fear, but also because of her soaked clothes. She also noticed that none of the present people seemed to care about the way that water was spreading through the things they got on them, they only watched expression less how the joker was handling the situation. Also the pain from the previous punch from the joker had desappeared, and only a little feeling of annoyance on her cheek was left.

"Yes my dear?" he asked smiling tryng to sound sweet and charming, almost mocking the way of talking of a mother towards her liittle baby. This gave her the courage to go on.

"Could I please go home?" she asked whispering "my mummy is waiting for me there, and she always gets scared when I arrive later than usual" she wasn't really worried about the punishment that her mum may give her: She just wanted to go away from this strange situation. The joker's smile suddenly faded, and was replaced with a look of pure fiury in his eyes. Suddenly, he pulled back his leg, and strongly he kikced her in the stomach, sending her backwards. When she fell with her back to the floor, she drew her arms to her arms, and screamed at the same time she choked. The pain was tremendous, as if her stomach was turned upside down, and moving in every direction inside her body. The joker just looked at her, not smiling.

"I told you, that you'll have to play this game, didn't I?!" he asked, now with a not clown-like voice, which made her start tembling while being on the floor, her clothes becomind dirty with the mud of the soaked street, and her bag pressed against her back. He kneeled beside her, and slapped her in the face. Her jaw made an strange sound, like it had been moved, or soemthing had broken inside of her face, but she could only feel the burning pain in her cheek. She the began to cry loudly. Annoyed, The joker grabbed her by the shoulders, and rudely putted her face right in front of his "Stop cryng you little bitch!!" he screamed, anger present in his dark tone. She immediatly closed her mouth, and looked susprised at the eyes of the man, tears dropping from her's. He satanded her up, took her bag away from her, and threw it away, one of the men grabbed it in mid air, and he too threw it away from the circle. She just stood there looking at the joker in fear, like he was a television. The purple man sighed "oooookey" he began to say, recovering his acute tone "are you going to cooperate know?" without thinking it twice, Rebeca nodded, never leaving his eyes the face of the painted man. Harry, whom the girl had forgotten was there, shocked his head, tryng to convince her to change his opinion, but she didn't see him, all she could see was that painted face, which was becoming more and more scary as time pased. The joker clapped his hands, now smiling widely, "perfect! now: would you please come with us, I think this place is too" he scratched his chin, making it look like he was in deep though "exposed" he finally said "to play our game game, don't you think?" rebe ca just stared at him. Annoyed, he sighed and looked at his men "well wathever, could someone please take care of this squirt for me?" he then looked said loudly "alright people, we are going home!" one man grabbed her by her jacket, and leaded to follow the mass of people that was following the painted man, who had started to walk away. She looked at Harry, and saw that two men were picking him up, and as they did, he started to scream for the pain that the wound was cousing him. She also noticed that nobody was caring a bit about the bodies of Harry's wife and daughter. At the sight of this, she found her voice again.

"Wait" she screamed, regretting her action, as many men turned towards her, including the joker.

"What is it?" he asked. She looked down, her sudden voice was now gone, and she only looked at him. After a while of her silence, he began to grow impatiente, "What is it?!" he asked again, now louder. She looked down, and with this she found a little bit of courage to speak.

"A...ar...aren't you going to p...pi...p...pick them up? she asked lowly, pointing at the bodies of the two women. the men looked between each other, as if they hadn´t understand her. It was the same reaction on the joker, who seemed annoyed at the cuestion.

"what do you mean squirt?" he asked, not with anger, just with curiosity, as if she was talking in another lenguage.

"tho... those t..t...two" she said still pointing at the bodies "aren´t you going to bury them?" she though that they would first take them to a church, so they could go to heaven, at least, that was what she though yo should do when people die, and after that, you bury them so they can rest in peace. Th joker still looked at her as if she was saying the most ridiculous thing in the world.

"why would we do that?" he asked.

"Be...be..because... they a...ar...they are people" she said looking now at him, as if it was obvious.

"No" the joker said "they are dead people, a very different and useless thing if you ask me" he turned from her "we don't have time for this, let's go!" and with that he started walking towards the opposite way from were rebeca had entered. She just kept looking at the bodies as she was dragged into the darkness of a place she had never been in. More scared than she had ever been in her entire life.

...

All right, that's it for now. i'm leaving it hanging so i can make the next chapter more complex.

thank you Sirrius's sister for the review, it's strange but, i felt amanzingly good after reading it. it's just that nobody has ever priced the things that i've wrtitten, so, emmm, thank you.

if someone else read this chapter, (and possibly the first one) i appreciate your time.

and so:

if you have, (bow in old fashion) thank you for reading.


	3. cards

Child's game

Chapter 3: cards

"Where are we going?" asked Rebeca timidly to the man sitting next to her. The man looked down at her, without any expression, his dark skin and eyes glittering in the darkness of the streets, as flashlights of the passing cars hilluminated the interior of the truck. Rebeca felt scared by the obscure and empty look that the man was giving her. He then just turned back to look at the road in front of them, and so did the girl. What she didn't noticed was the evil grin the man putted on his face as he looked ahead.

After walking for a few minutes through the alley, they had arrived to another street where two trucks were waiting for them. The men climbed on them, Harry was putted in one different to the one they had put Rebeca, who was placed at the cabin of the front truck, in the same one that the joker went in.

They had been riding for around half an hour by now, and Rebeca hadn't the slatest idea of where ther were going, they had already gone as far as she had ever gone in her entire life, beyond the house of her grandparents, who lived many blocks away from her house. But the scenery hadn't changed very much, the streets were full of veggars, women dreesed up with very short skirts tryng to catch the attention of the cars passing by near them. Young people, waving their guns to anyone whom they came across with, some of them shooting to the air screaming strange things while doing so.

This was an strange place, it wasn't the gotham that she knew. No. This was a totally different place, full of strange and wrong things that she didn't understand. It was almost like another, and very bizarre world, and she didn't like it.

They suddenly arrived to a desserted streets, which wasn´t crowded with poor people. In their place, there were countless hangars, all of them seemed to be empty, and because there wasn't much light, you couldn't see very much around them. This is were they live? asked herself Rebeca. She was taken out of the car, and, along with the rest of the men, she was dragged into one of the hangars. She looked around, the men weren´t showing anny expression, they seemed kind of bored, while the Joker had a determined look on his face, as he walked at the front of the men, he sudenly looked at Rebeca, who avoided his satare by looking to another place, making the man in purple to smirk evily.

Tho joker opened the metal doors, revealing an old and empty store house, which didn't seem to have been visited in quite some time. He walked to the side, and took out of the corner a tabe and a chair, and placed them at the middle of the hangar. Everyone, including Rebeca, were looking curiously watching the man's movements, how he laughed during the preparations, like a child who is about to go to the circus and watch clowns doing acrobatics. Suddenly, he began to look around, as if there was something missing at the roof, everyone followed his eyes, but they didn't see anything.

"Could someone please turn on the lights?" he said suddenly, the men just stood there, as if he had spoken in another lenguage, he turned to them, deadly serious "someone?" he repeated, clearly annoyed by the stupidity of his men. One of them looked around the place, walked towards a corner an turned the swith on. Light came, blinding Rebeca, who had to cover her ayes with one hand to se what was going on in front of her. "oooookey" said suddenly the Joker with his back turned towards her "bring the kid" he oredered. Immediatly, two men dragged forcefully the little girl, and sitted her on the chair. The leader walked around her for a moment, savouring the distress she was in, how she trembled, how she looked around trying to find an explanation to what was going on. He liked the way she looked at him, a look of fear in her blue eyes. He didn't know why, but it was so fascinating to watch people in desperate conditions. He placed his hands on the table, in front of the girl, and looked down at her, an smirk plasted on his face. She didn't dare to look back at him, and was looking down at her knees. Her hands were forming tight fists, sweaing madly. "allright, ermmm... what was your name again?" he asked casualy. She didn't look up.

"Re...re... Rebeca" she stuttered.

"Right!, Rebeca" he exlaimed "as i have already said, we are going to play a little game now, and, as you have said before, you are going to play it by the rules" he said, a menacing tone patent in his voice, but never stopped smiling "are we clear Rebeca?" she nodded raplidly, terrified "good" he then took out of his jacket a set of cards, he looked at his men, "Charlie, could you please come for a second?" a man broked from the group, he wasn't very tall, at least not when rebeca compared him with the joker, but he seemed rude and intimidating. The Joker handed him the deck "please place them on the table, with the figures facing the floor" he instructed, Charlie did so. All the cards fitted the table, they weren't very big cards, not bigger than the hands of the girl, in the back, which was al she could see of them, they were red, just red, their entire back was red. Rebeca watched how Charlie took care of his task, probably the game was about cards, maybe it was like guessing which one would come out, or something like that maybe. But then, remmembering why she was there, she looked behind her at the group of men, trying to find Harry, but as she gazed through the place, she noticed that he was nowhere to be seen, had they killed him? or they had let him go, or maybe they had sent him to an hospital to be treated. She looked at the joker, who had his attention fixed on the way that Charlie was doing his job, he was serious now.

"E... e...excuse me" she said lowly, the joker looked at her, and charlie stopped for a moment, he looked at her, a little bit surprised, then continued what he was doing. The joker kept looking at her, serious, intimidating, making her shrink on her seat.

"What?" he asked.

"Whe...we...Where is Ha...ha...Harry?" she asked, it annoyed her a little thet she was stuttering so much, she had neve stuttered in her life, but it was so difficult to talk fluently to the man with the white face. He just stared blankly at the girl, and made an strange movement with his lips, as if he was thirsty, or at least, that was the way she saw it. He looked at his men.

"That's a good question" he paused for a little bit, still looking expressionless at his men "where is he?" he asked them. They just looked between each other, "Where is he!!" he shouted, with a dark tone, two men broke from the grpoup and went to the exit.

"Sorry boss, we'll bring him!!" one of them shouted as they leaved. Moments later, they brought Harry, who had now his wound covered with a shirt, and it seemed like the blood had stopped pouring out from it. But he was unconscious, they draw a chair form a corner, and sitted him there. He looked really pale, his originally white clothes of seller were now stained with blood and mud, and his hair was messy an dirty. Rebeca felt so bad for him, but maybe she could save him, and all of this would be forgotten, and the jocker sorely would be captured by the batman, the hero of gotham. The jocke sighed loudly, exasperated.

"Would you please check out the next time, we are making a very bad impression in here, you know?" he shouted, looking seriously to his men, he sighed again, and twistedly smiled again "but, know we are all set, aren't we?" he asked nobody, not specting an answer, he slowly made his way towards Rebeca, laughing lowly, she wanted to run away as the man approached, he looked blankly at her, as if she was something incredibly amusing. He crouched a little, getting his face closer to the girl's. "do you want to know the rules" she, remmembering that by no way she could go against the wishes of the mad man, nodded rapidly, he kept smiling "good", he stood and walked around the table positioning himself right in fron of Rebeca "it's quite simple: you see, here are 52 cards, ones with a red color, and others with black color, you got thet?" she nodded, red and black, she got it "know, what i want you to do, is to start picking cards, for every black card that you take out, we will take one of Harry's finger, you got that" she staredat him, surprised.

"W...wu...what?" she asked, knowing what he had said, and understanding every part of it, but unable to believe it, it was mounstrous! the Joker sighed, annoyed.

"For every black card that you take out, we... will take..."he said pronuncing every word very loudly, as if she was a stupid child in class "one... of his fingers" he said the last word showing his hand to the girl, and shaking it in a few ways, "youuu got that?" he asked, this time she nodded, difficultly swallowing her saliva through her throat "gooooood" said in a childish way "know, if you take out red cards, we won't do anything to him, ok?" she nodded again, her lips pressed strongly against each other "ok, know, something that you should know is that, in the case that you take five black cards, we will kill him" at that, she began to tremble, this man was crazy, this couldn't be right, tears began to form in her eyes she was scared, she couldn't do this, it was to much, she wanted to go out, or maybe it was all a dream, or a nightmare, or a game, or a joke, it had to be something, it couldn't be real, she looked down at her thighs, and closed her eyes, maybe she would wake up. There was a moment of silence, "hey" said the joker, "little little one!" he sai in a funny sing song voice, but Rebeca knew that voice, she didn't want to hear it anymore, he laughed loudly, like a maniac, "hey, hey, come on! we can't play this without the main star!" he aproximated her, she could feel him very close to her, suddenly, he punched her in the face, sending her off from her chair. She fell harshly to the floor, with a tremendous pain in her cheek, and feeling terribly dizzy, tears flushed through her eyes. She looked up to the joker, who was looking at her, deadly serious, "do you get what i am saying you little bitch?!" he screamed, she continued crying, he kneeled before her, and hitted her again, the pain was irrepresible, she felt blood coming out of her mouth, while her cheek had swollen considerably "do you get it?!" he shouted again, this time she got it.

"Yes" she said lowly, hardly breathing between sobs. The joker grinned, then stood up.

"Alright!" he said jumping while stoodind, he picked the girl by the hair, and, ignoring the moans of pain, stood her up "sit" he said humorously, pointing towards the chair in front of the table. She walked slowly towards it, with her hand still on the cheek, she sat on the chair, facing the cards, tears still falling from her eyes. The joker looked at her, serious, "choose one" he ordered.

Rebeca looked through the cards in front of her, not knowing what to do, what if she picked a black one? but wait, there was something missing, and she had to ask it.

"Bu...but... Mr. joker" he looked at her puzzled by her sudden reaction "ha...how...do i safe ha...Harry" why couldn't she just stop stuttering? the man looked at her for a moment, then started to laugh again.

"Smart girl you are" he said with a grin on his face "yes, there is a way to safe our mutual friend. And it is to get five 7 cards with the color red" he said, "do you get it?" she nodded, so she needed to get seven red cards, that was not fair, but she didin't dare to contradict him. But she found herself again in front of the back of the cards, which one was red? and which one black? she looked at each one of them, they all were the same. She slowly rised her hand, which was all sweated and sticky. She moved her hand above the cards, being about to pick one, but regretting in the last instant. She was trembling as if her life depended on it.

Finally she closed her eyes and picked a card, when she opened her eyes, she saw the color of it: black

...

So there goes chapter 3

i again apologise for the very bad way of writting

and i thanks again sirriu's sister for her review

and so, if you have (bow in an old fashion) thank you for reading


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